The more we see the EU “in action”, the more we despair of there even being a “European Union” left, if ever there really was one. The European Coal and Steel Union which evolved into the EEC of the six and then went on to grow into an ever larger EU was always a project from above. Nevertheless, in its object of bringing peace to the “Dark Continent”* of Europe it appears to have been successful.
I say “appears” because although it is true that Europe, or what was then still known as Western Europe, did indeed enjoy unprecedented peace and prosperity, till the wars of Yugoslav succession and then the bursting of the finance capitalist bubble, there were many more factors in place that ensured this peace. Not least of which was the institution of NATO and the Cold War.
The Cold War as a factor of peace? Indeed. Since this signaled the dwarfing of the once mighty, ex Imperial Powers of Europe that had ruled the world for Centuries, and the rise of American hegemony, and, most important perhaps, the Marshall Plan and Bretton Woods accords.
So rather than preening itself on its great success and basking in the otherwise ironic award of the Nobel Prize for Peace, Europe should perhaps start pondering its failures and its mistakes. And basic lack of vision or genuine popular support at any time.
The European project, even at its most popular was never something the peoples of Europe related to much and in any case it was never perceived as their project. It was an institution that supposedly facilitated trade, that gave subsidies to farmers at best, and ruined one’s eating habits through prohibiting traditional English pork sausages on the one hand and the Greek intestine and liver delicacy cockoretsi on the other.
But it was never something citizens of the European member states ever really identified with. Something they would fight and die for. In other words, it never won the hearts and minds of the people. No one ever honestly felt him or herself to be a citizen of Europe, rather than a citizen of France, Italy, Germany and so on.
And this is becoming more and more evident through the Eurogroups and summits. And is, I expect, what will lead, or rather is leading, to the unraveling of the European Union. In fact just as the Marshall Plan from the US led to the creation of peace and prosperity in Europe, so the bursting of the global financial bubble has led to the unmasking of what really underlies our so called European Union.
As we can see from the current wrangling over the budget in the summit being held, there is no European “Union”. Instead, there is a bunch of different nation states, with different interests, with no interest in propping up some kind of Union any more. Each leader is playing to his own audience. The wealthier countries, having been forced by The Frau’s imposition of austerity through her idiotic “golden rule”, wish to reduce their contribution. Understandably. The poorer countries are desperate for more subsidies, or at any rate no reduction in them. Understandably too.
Cameron is talking directly to the British Euro-skeptics. He is pandering to the Opinion Polls that show a growing tendency of wanting to leave the EU altogether. Angela Merkel too has her own agenda, which is nothing other than her elections in about a year. The same goes for all the leaders. Not one of them has a word to say about the “European Project”. What it is supposed to achieve. How boosting the Economy on a European level will benefit every member state and perhaps help mould these states into a whole.
Nothing. None of that. No one believes in any of that nor has any interest in trying to create any European solidarity, any European identity. I think one of the main reasons for this derives from the “democratic deficit.” No one can feel any direct sympathy for institutions that impose all sorts of unpleasant things with no direct democratic legitimation. Pork sausages, Cockoretsi at best, wilful dissolution of social welfare and labour relations at worst.
But as I have said before, and will no doubt say again, the way The Frau has catastrophically mismanaged what began as the European sovereign debt crisis, has made the underlying European disunion toxic. Whether inadvertently or not, she has stoked and kindled the flames of hate. Of European hate which has caused the worst and most barbaric wars humanity has ever witnessed.
And no one appears to have any interest in trying to douse these flames or mend the situation in any way. We are back to national prejudices, power politics, the strong Germans stamping over the weaker ones with their jackboots and expecting everyone to fall in line with what they want.
None of this augers well for any kind of European Unity, let alone “solidarity”. And unfortunately any hope of some sense appearing at the very last moment, in what the Euro idealists say is “the way of Europe”, is becoming remoter by the day.
*The title of Mark Mazower’s excellent book on Europe.